Simon O’Connor

Simon O’Connor heads the secretariat for the Ukraine Donor Platform, established in December 2022 by G7 leaders to coordinate support for Ukraine’s budgetary financing and economic recovery and reconstruction needs.

Simon has spent more than 25 years in Brussels in a variety of roles at the apex of EU economic policy and communication. He assumed his current position in July 2024, after serving as member of cabinet for two successive European Commissioners responsible for economic and financial affairs, Pierre Moscovici and Paolo Gentiloni. He was responsible for managing their communication strategies, their participation in international economic policy fora and their bilateral relations with G7 countries. Previously, as the Commission’s spokesperson for economic and monetary affairs and economy spokesperson for the Commission President, Simon steered the institution’s media operation during the most intense and challenging years of the sovereign debt crisis.

Prior to joining the European Commission in 2011, he was editor of a Brussels-based EU affairs publication, E!Sharp. He also worked for two public affairs consultancies and at the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union.